A Stellar Show: The Planets

Wednesday, 3 April 2019, 9:33 am
Article: Max Rashbrooke

A Stellar Show: The Planets

New Zealand Symphony Orchestra

Saturday, March 30

Reviewer: Max Rashbrooke

The Michael Fowler Centre (or the fowl house, as it is affectionately known) was almost completely packed for Saturday night’s concert, this time one with no obvious theme, in contrast to the loose set of Haydn associations that characterised the last one.

First up were three movements from Abstractions, a work by the mid-career London-born composer Anna Clyne; each was inspired by a work hanging in the Baltimore Museum of Art. Movement II, ‘Auguries’, was my favourite, a fabulous workout for the strings, who got to make horn-like hunting calls and then whipped everything into an overlapping, echoing whirlpool of sound. It was extra-cinematic stuff, calling up images of racing chariots. Movement IV, ‘River’, in contrast, had energy but also a contemplative calm. (As a former English literature student, I was reminded of the Wordsworth line, “The river glideth at his own sweet will.”) Clyne’s mastery of dynamics and tension was fully in evidence.

Next up came a set of excerpts from a relatively little-known Berlioz opera, The Death of Cleopatra (La Mort de Cleopatre). It was hard to avoid the obvious conclusion that this is music deserving to be better known, as the orchestration conjured up everything from the depths of despair of the Egyptian queen to a sort of noble mysticism.

The soloist was the American mezzo-soprano Susan Graham, who delivered a truly sensational performance. Utterly convincing in the role, though without any grand gestures, she sang with a bewitching mixture of sweetness and steel; the bleak final scene, in which the orchestra stutters along like a spasmodic heartbeat, had her almost whispering but still singing with absolute clarity.

After the interval came a perhaps still-greater treat: a terrific rendition of the Gustav Holst classic The Planets. The first movement, Mars, was appropriately, well, martial – stirring and invigorating – although the transition into the horn-led passages could have been more smoothly managed. In immediate contrast, Venus was a lovely movement, with the complex, pulsing rhythms handled especially well.

Mercury was both playful and delightful; again, the rhythmic intricacies were dealt with assuredly. The famous theme from Jupiter was given a wonderful treatment, both stately and passionate. Echoes of Elgar, both in this movement and the remaining ones, were evident throughout; indeed the whole concert augured well for the Enigma show in a couple of weeks’ time. Voices New Zealand provided a stunning finale, evoking the awe of looking up at the night sky as they faded out through the last movement. And although moments of the Saturn movement, for instance, dragged a little, it was generally refreshing to see conductor Edo de Waart, whom I sometimes find too conservative in his interpretations, really giving it everything – without of course sacrificing taste and delicacy. Bravo!

ends

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Max Rashbrooke

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Max Rashbrooke is a journalist and author working in Wellington, New Zealand, where he writes about politics, finance and social issues.

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